Sat 3/4
Cleveland’s Adele Bertei has had an intriguing career in music, traveling through some of the most interesting music scenes in both northeast Ohio and New York.
She was part of the underground scene that produced Pere Ubu before splitting in 1977 for New York City where she fell into its No Wave scene and worked for groundbreaking producer Brian Eno. She co-founded an all-women out gay band The Bloods, snagged a couple of record deals in the ’8os which didn’t add up to much but provided a lot of contacts in the music scene. In the later ’80s she toured as a backup vocalist for Tears for Fears. She became involved in the underground film scene and moved to L.A. to study filmmaking. Most recently, she released two books: Peter and the Wolves describes the influence that Cleveland underground legend Peter Laughner had on her, while Why Labelle Matters is self-descriptive.
But her backstory wouldn’t necessarily have led anyone who knew her growing up in Cleveland, to predict her productive array of creative projects. She tells that story of what she survived in her new memoir, Twist: An American Girl, which is available this week. It details her mother’s schizophrenia, the foster homes she lived in growing up and he reformatories she passed through, using the persona of “Maddie Twist.”
“As she ages out of the system and finds herself navigating the world alone, Maddie’s only constant is a ribbon of music that weaves itself around her heart,” says the book’s description. “She can sing, and she is certain it will be the beacon that guides her towards another life.”
And so it did. The book is available through publisher ZE Books this week. Bertei is planning an appearance in Cleveland later this year: more to come!
zebooks.com/products-1/twist-an-american-girl